Comprehensive guide to the Readwise Daily Review

Readwise Daily Review is built to turn highlights into a consistent habit: each day (or every other day or week) it resurfaces a small, customizable set of highlights from a user’s library so they can revisit ideas and retain them over time. The core workflow starts with setup in Preferences, where users choose delivery frequency, time zone, and even the number of highlights per review. From there, the Daily Review can arrive as a simple email, be used inside the web app for deeper interaction, or be accessed through an iOS mobile app (with Android in progress). The system selects anywhere from 3 to 15 highlights per session, and users can tune how “recent” those highlights skew—biasing toward what was read most recently or, if desired, toward older material.

Beyond frequency and volume, the Daily Review’s quality and relevance controls shape what shows up. A “highlight recency” slider adjusts resurfacing so newer highlights appear sooner, which matters for readers whose interests evolve over time. A “bonus highlights” toggle can add recommended books based on what users have highlighted and how intensely they engaged with each book—positioned as discovery rather than advertising. A “quality filter” removes low-value fragments (like a few disconnected words) and excessively long highlights that can be disorienting or slow to review when resurfaced out of context.

The most granular customization happens in the content mix. Users can dial books, articles, tweets, and supplemental books up or down, including setting books to “never” to avoid that source entirely. Supplemental books are especially important for new users: they inject popular highlights from Readwise’s library into the daily rotation until a user has accumulated enough of their own highlights. This approach aims to help retention early on, even when the user hasn’t built a large personal archive yet.

Once inside the Daily Review interface, the experience shifts from passive reading to active processing. In “review mode,” the app focuses on one highlight at a time to reduce distraction; “scroll mode” mirrors the email-style vertical list. Highlights are marked with status indicators—such as a blue dot for “unprocessed” highlights the system hasn’t shown before—along with metadata like when the highlight was originally taken. Users can jump back to the source in Kindle, copy highlight text, and adjust the resurfacing behavior by telling Readwise whether to show a book more or less often.

The Daily Review also supports deeper learning actions. Users can tag highlights, favorite them, and use “edit” to rewrite highlight passages for clarity—shortening them, adding missing context, and formatting with underline or italics. Notes can capture reflections and connections, reinforcing the “read between the lines” approach. For retention, “mastery” applies active recall and spaced repetition: highlights can be converted into fill-in-the-blank prompts (“closed deletion”) or into question-and-answer forms, then scheduled as “soon,” “later,” or “eventually” based on how hard the recall felt and how important the idea is.

Finally, the system tracks streaks for daily completion, rewarding consistency while breaking the streak if a day is missed (with a plan to add recovery). Overall, the Daily Review is designed to revisit, refine, and reinforce the best parts of reading—turning scattered highlights into an organized, evolving learning loop.